Both Georgia and the Republican Party have a lot of explaining to do for what happened there in the 2002 elections. Voters removed two respected Democratic politicians on dubious grounds. Gov. Roy Barnes, who was expected to be a 2004 presidential candidate for the party, lost because he created controversy by removing the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag. You would think that almost a century and a half after the end of the Civil War, removing a racist and treasonous symbol would not be such a difficult task to accomplish, especially after the surge in patriotism following Sept. 11. What could be more treasonous than rebelling from the union and then trying to destroy it all in the name of maintaining slavery?
- Louie Meizlish
Sen. Max Cleland was also thrown out of office after his opponent, then Rep. Saxby Chambliss, associated the triple amputee, Vietnam veteran with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. It was a pretty disgraceful and embarrassing scene for the state.
Last Thursday, The Washington Post ran a piece about Cleland and how he has handled his defeat. The verdict was not very well. The piece tells the story of Cleland’s time in Washington, from his arrival as a young, idealistic student who wanted to change the world, to a broken, disillusioned former senator, claiming that “the state of American politics is sickening.” Given the results of his last election, it’s hard to blame him for feeling that way. Not only is there too much money in politics, but Cleland’s election is proof that the Republican Party still relies on the racist Southern Strategy in order to win votes.
On a related note, author and University alumnus Ann Coulter has a new book out called “Treason.” It’s number two on The New York Times bestseller list, which is the best motivation I can think of for buying Hilary Clinton’s book in order to keep it in the top slot. I have not read Coulter’s book, but from watching her explain it on TV, I can say that the thesis is that the country’s Democratic Party has been a treasonous entity for the past 50 years and cannot be trusted with the country’s national security. She also defends the McCarthy witch hunts. Coulter’s claims could be dispatched with with great ease, as they have no grounding in fact and are based upon a molehill of shaky assumptions strung together with a dearth of logic rivaling that of even the most vacuous family of lemmings.
But I sense another disconnect between Coulter and reality. It is not the Democratic Party and liberals that are betraying America; rather, members of the Republican Party are the ones sucking the life out of this country. When Max Cleland, a man who risked his life for and lost three of his limbs defending his country, loses faith in America, alarm bells should be going off that something is wrong.
Last week the Kennedy family was all over the news. Sure one of them just made a movie and may run for governor of the country’s most populous state, but one is divorcing a Cuomo, one supposedly had a terrible marriage and new allegations about President John Kennedy’s moral lapses surface with a fair amount of regularity. But to many Americans, the Kennedy family means much more than mere tabloid fodder.
To the Americans who wept when whoever shot John Kennedy shot John Kennedy, the family represents hope and a belief that the problems the world faces can indeed be solved. It may be a na